A Most Unusual School Project
by TheOneTheOnlyGajeelRedfox
Summary: AU fic. When the local bully, Zancrow, crashes into a speeding car and subsequently loses his life, his fearful classmates are overjoyed. However, Zancrow's belongings are being passed on, including the bike he died on. Undeterred by the dark rumours that surround the bike, Natsu decides that it would make the perfect project. The only problem is finding someone willing to help...


**_When the local bully and terror of the Courage Academy, Zancrow, crashes into a speeding car and subsequently loses his life, his once-petrified classmates are overjoyed. However, Zancrow's old belongings are being quickly passed on to others, including the very motorbike he died on. Undeterred by the dark rumours that surround the bike, Natsu Dragneel decides that it would make the perfect project to keep him occupied for the rest of the school year. The only problem is finding someone willing to help…_**

**_Hello! First off, let me just say that the inspiration for this story is the song 'From Here to Eternity' by the great Iron Maiden! It got me thinking that I really wanted to write a story about a motorbike, so without further ado..._**

**_I hope that you enjoy! And of course, I don't own anything!_**

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><p>Holding the phone tantalisingly close to the boy's face, Zancrow laughed shrilly as the shorty jumped up repeatedly, his arms stretched out to reach what was rightfully his. This shameless display of bullying had been going on for about ten minutes now, but still no one had come to Jet's rescue. Zancrow always hung out alone around the back of the school building, where they had foolishly neglected to place security cameras, so it was easy enough for the blonde bully to get away with whatever he felt like getting away with. Everyone knew to never leave school by going past Zancrow's haunt, as he would pick on everyone and anyone – even if you were in a group. Unfortunately, Jet's best friend, Droy, had asked Jet to go around this way, as he claimed that it would make the journey they were planning much quicker – they wanted to go and grab some food together after school. Apparently, he had forgotten about Zancrow. It was just after school had ended, and Jet needed his phone – he was expecting a call any minute now from Droy telling him where to meet up so they could head off together – but his heart wasn't really in trying to get it back anymore. Jet knew better than anyone else that it was just easier to let Zancrow have his fun. He was a lot older than himself, not to mention stronger, and Jet had heard a lot of horror stories from the younger pupils like himself about how Zancrow beat up anyone who dares to talk back. For the last month or so, Jet had been Zancrow's new target, which was odd, because Zancrow didn't target people. He didn't even have any cronies, apart from the other bullies he sometimes talked to, but they were people he seemed to respect… Jet shook his head in disbelief and halted in his attempts to reach for his phone. He was being picked on by just one guy and he was just going to let him do that?<p>

Zancrow stopped laughing when he realised that his victim seemed to be steeling himself to do something. His face curled into a wicked grin – he had been waiting for this.

'_Oh_,' he began in condescending way, his hands on his hips, 'going to fight me are you, little man?'

Jet tried in vain to shout back a reply that he hoped would make his aggressor tremble, but all that came out was a sort of frightened mumble. Thankfully, Zancrow's attention was now not on Jet, but was thoroughly absorbed by Jet's phone, which had just begun to ring. To Jet's embarrassment, his ring tone was still the opening theme to 'Pokémon', and this was not lost on Zancrow. He turned to face Jet, one eyebrow raised mockingly as '_I wanna be the very best; like no one ever was,_' blared in the background. Jet looked down, face red, as Zancrow burst out laughing like a madman.

'But what's this?' he whispered gleefully, after a couple of seconds.

Jet's head snapped up. Zancrow sounded far too happy about something. Perhaps he had finally noticed who had called him! _Now Droy will be bullied too_, he thought bitterly, willing himself to not cry in anguish.

'Levy? The little girly who looks like you could knock her down with a sneeze?'

Levy? Why was Levy calling him? Droy had mentioned something about her coming along with them today, but it seemed at the time that she wasn't really that interested… Maybe she'd changed her mind? But this made the situation all the more worse. It just wouldn't do if Levy was picked on, especially because of him! However, Zancrow found this all rather hilarious.

'It seems,' he forced out between his howls of laughter, 'that you have a little_ girlfriend!_'

Jet looked down again. He could only wait for it to be over now. Zancrow usually gave up about this time. But then Zancrow had never stolen his phone from him before…

'Well, I think that's enough of that irritating noise, don't you think?'

And then there was a grunt, followed by a harsh, dull crash as Jet's phone met the pavement below. Jet didn't look up, wiping his eyes carefully, furiously trying to not let Zancrow see him crying. Giggling and clapping his hands together like a demented sea lion, Zancrow figured that enough was enough for one day. He'd have another go tomorrow, maybe at that Levy girl… The ginger runt seemed awfully fond of her…

Still sniggering to himself, Zancrow dashed away from Jet lamenting the loss of his phone, and launched himself onto his pride and joy – his motorbike. It was undeniably beautiful, painted in a deep, shining red, with chrome covering much of the rest of the bike. Many times the other students had enviously speculated about where Zancrow had gotten this undoubtedly expensive bike from, but no one really knew. Thousands of rumours had arisen about it, some of which seemed plausible, and some of which sounded downright idiotic. The theories ranged from the possibility that Zancrow had inherited it to some half-baked story about the headmaster of the school, a secret services cover-up and a lot of duct tape.

Revving the engine infuriatingly loudly, making Jet clap his hands over his ears, Zancrow tore out of the school gates, leaving a distraught Jet and a terrible mess behind him.

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><p>Not slowing down, even for turns or bends, Zancrow thought that he was bored of taunting Jet, really. It had been fun for a while, but it was getting rather dull tormenting a little runt that couldn't even defend himself. It got repetitive. It was time to move onto someone a little more… fun. Maybe that Natsu Dragneel might be worth his time. He'd been going on for weeks about how he would grind him to a pulp if he didn't leave the other students alone. Zancrow had been dying to go up against Natsu for months – it would be his greatest achievement if he won in a fight against him. Natsu was well known as one of the strongest students in the whole school, and he was often approached by some of the more weedy pupils as a means of protection, namely from Zancrow himself. That had actually been the reason why Zancrow had picked on Jet in the first place – he knew that Natsu and he were somewhat close. However, after over a month of Jet being picked on, Natsu hadn't made any advances on his dark promise to make sure that he 'wished that he had never been born.' Obviously, Jet hadn't said anything to him… Maybe the runt was stronger than he had originally thought…<p>

Head in the clouds, speeding like a demon, it was only a matter of time before Zancrow would be pulled from his thoughts into harsh reality. Beginning to swing his bike over to one side, about to turn onto Magnolia street, Zancrow thought that he could miss out most of the corner so he wouldn't have to slow down. After all, there was no traffic from the other direction. Zancrow leant over further.

Sadly, he had failed to notice the pickup truck that had been steaming along the other side of the road, about to reach the turn also; after all, the nights were becoming longer as of late, and the truck had been painted a jet black.

Still leaning over and not quite making it to his side of the road, the truck reached Zancrow before he knew what was happening, hitting him squarely in the chest. He was dead before he hit the floor.

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><p><em>A few days later…<em>

'Are you _insane?!_'

'Look, I think it's perfectly feasible if you think about it!'

"Perfectly feasible" or not, it's not about that! It's about the guy who had that thing in the first place!'

'Yeah, so?'

'_So, _you shouldn't be wanting to have a look at it at all!'

'Who cares who it was owned by?! It's cool!'

A heated argument was going on in the lunch room that afternoon, and it didn't take any of the students long to work out who it was between: Natsu Dragneel and Gray Fullbuster, by general consensus - the fieriest students in the whole school. If one were to listen a little harder, it wouldn't be that difficult to figure out what the topic of conversation was, either…

'Natsu, haven't you heard the stories circulating about Zancrow's bike already? He died on it. People are making up all sorts of tales, saying it's cursed and crap like that.'

'Ha! You tellin' me that you actually believe in all that supernatural rubbish? Huh, Gray?'

'No! I'm saying that bike'll have a stigma against it. Everyone will think it's cursed or something ridiculous like that. You sure you still want to buy it?'

'Even if it is possessed, all I have to do is give it a whack or two. That'll keep whatever's in it at bay. Or something.'

Natsu made punching motions with his fists whilst Gray looked on incredulously.

'_You can't punch a ghost!_'

'Yeah? Who says I can't?!'

The rest of lunch passed in a rather eventful fight between the two boys, both arguing heatedly over whether it was possible to beat up spirits.

One way or another, when the school day had finished, Natsu ended up dragging a thoroughly uninterested Gray along to where the motorbike was being sold – Zancrow's garage. Gray himself was rather surprised that the motorbike was being sold in the first place; surely it would have been confiscated for evidence? But here it was, right in front of him, a little bent and broken, but still for sale. The dark red paint automatically made Gray think about blood, causing him to shudder. According to eye-witness accounts, there had been a hell of a lot of blood at the scene when Zancrow had been killed on this very bike. Gray wondered if it had been cleaned at all.

'So… Is that all you want for it?'

Natsu, however, seemed very pleased with himself. He'd gotten the bike for next to nothing. Obviously the old man that sold it had no idea what it was worth. It looked like he was the only person Zancrow had lived with, and he seemed too old to be his father. Perhaps he was his grandfather? It didn't matter either way – Natsu had gleefully gotten what he had come for.

Wheeling the bike out carefully, Natsu turned and gave the man a joyous wave which he did not return. Natsu swung back around, scowling, as the garage door began to close behind them.

'You can hardly expect him to be happy, Natsu. His grandson's just been killed.'

'Yeah… well…' Natsu grumbled, slightly embarrassed.

'Anyway, how the hell are you going to fix this thing up? You don't know the first thing about motorcycles.'

'You'll see! It'll look awesome when I'm done with it! I've always wanted one of these!'

'That wasn't what I asked…' Gray murmured, deciding to leave Natsu to it.

'I can weld, you know,' Natsu claimed, showing off the little skills that he had. 'And I'll tell you something – I'll have this thing fixed up in… a month!'

'A month? You're on.'

There was no chance he'd finish a long-term project like this in a month. Natsu would most likely destroy some part of it, get bored with it, and then stow it in his garage until he forgot about it.

'Alright, you pay me fifty quid if I get this done by the fifteenth of the next month!'

It was the fifteenth today, so that would give Natsu a full month in which to straighten out the frame, paint the whole thing, and do a whole host of other small jobs like re-chroming parts of the bike, and actually getting it fully working.

'You've got a deal, Natsu,' Gray sighed, thinking privately that this was a very easy bet to win. 'One month.'

They had just reached the point at which they both had to go their separate ways, and Natsu, giving Gray a mischievous grin, began to walk up his street, carefully supporting his new motorbike as he went. Gray shook his head and turned his back to his pink-haired friend, thinking of all the things that he could buy with fifty pounds.

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><p>Fumbling in his pocket for the keys to his garage, whilst also trying to juggle the weight of the motorbike, Natsu wondered how on earth he was going to get this done in a month. Reflecting on the bet he had just made, it seemed a little foolish. And he couldn't afford fifty pounds! Especially when Happy's cat food had climbed in price! One man couldn't do this in one month… One man… But maybe if he had help… Gajeel was always boasting about how good he was with metal… And Mirajane really had an eye for design… That was it! He would have to get everyone else in the school to give him a hand! Whilst keeping it a secret from Gray, of course. That would be perfect. Tomorrow, he would get Gajeel to have a look at the bike to see what he could do. Natsu was reluctant to ask for Gajeel's help, but if he offered this project to him as a job, rather than helping him out, then Natsu was a little more comfortable with it.<p>

Covering the bike tenderly with his best blanket, Natsu locked the garage door as tightly as he could, already anxious of leaving it for too long. He didn't care that Zancrow had owned the bike before he did. To Natsu, things like that mattered very little. To him, it was a motorbike, one that he had always wanted and past that, nothing else mattered.

Looking back again at the garage door, wary of potential thieves that may want to steal his treasure, Natsu unlocked his front door and strode inside, having to stop immediately the moment he stepped over the threshold, as Happy had just begun to wind himself around his legs. Happy was Natsu's cat, known to the neighbourhood as 'Happy the blue cat', and he was an adorable little creature at that. He was a Russian Blue, and lived up to his name – everyone always remarked that his fur looked unusually blue.

Natsu leant down and gave Happy a scratch behind the ears, which he gratefully accepted, rubbing up close to his friend. Making sure he didn't kick Happy accidentally, Natsu slowly made his way towards the kitchen, where he grabbed a bag of cat food and put it in Happy's bowl. Happy made a beeline for the bowl, where he began to happily munch the biscuits Natsu had put down for him. Natsu himself crashed on the sofa, trying to work out how he would get Gajeel involved in his project. He'd have to approach him like it was a business opportunity, or else he'd probably refuse. Natsu knew that Gajeel wouldn't do something for him out of the goodness of his heart – not in a thousand years. He hadn't earned the name Black Steel for being a sweet sort of guy.

Had Natsu had a family, he was sure that they'd be disapproving if he'd turned up one afternoon, having bought a beat-up motorcycle on a whim. As it were, he did not, so he could make whatever damn decisions he wanted without an irate parent breathing down his neck, and giving him dark looks until he got rid of it. That also meant that Natsu was fairly lonely, but at least he had Happy. He didn't know what he would do without Happy. It was always so pleasurable to come home to something cute and fluffy after a long, hard day at school. Natsu had had Happy ever since he had been a tiny kitten, and even though Happy's food was extremely expensive (he sure had good taste in cat food…), Natsu would much rather have him around than not.

Natsu spent the rest of that evening in and out of the garage, completely neglecting his homework in favour of tinkering around with his new toy. The frame was very much bent out of shape, but Natsu thought that with Gajeel's help, and with his welding skills, he could probably get it back to how it used to be with ease.

It was night before Natsu finally stopped messing around with his tools, locked the garage, and came inside. Sweeping past the mirror, he noticed that he had some oil on his face. Rubbing it away with a fingertip, he then realised that he'd actually just smeared more on there. Laughing, he decided that a bath would have to be in order before he went to bed – his maths teacher had told him that if he ever turned up to his class less than immaculate ever again, he would be in the headmaster's office before he knew it.

Laboriously climbing the stairs up to his bathroom (his legs had fallen asleep whilst he had been checking this and that on the bike), Natsu went to go and clean himself up, head filled with all things motorbike.

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><p><strong><em>So how's Natsu going to rope Gajeel into this eccentric project? I'll have the next chapter up soon! Hope that you enjoyed it!<em>**


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